Dubai
With the help of social media, people manage to campaign or raise awareness about different subjects. People in the UAE aren’t too far behind when it comes to raising their voice against bullying. Several anti-bullying campaigns have come up on different social media channels.
One such campaign is the “Bolt Down on Bullying” campaign that was initiated on Facebook. They also have the hashtag #boltdownonbullying on Instagram. The Dubai-based campaign aims to raise awareness about bullying at schools through a range of events, seminars and discussions.
The project was initiated in 2009 by Samineh Shaheem, an assistant professor of psychology and cross-cultural consultant based in Dubai. Schools can register for the campaign by simply messaging her. They can then coordinate and organise seminars at an agreed date. They also have counselling services for parents, students and teachers with the help of professional clinical psychologists.
Another campaign was initiated by the Raffles World Academy school in Jumeirah, Dubai. They have set up a Facebook page for their Anti-Bullying Committee (ABC). The student-led ABC tries to help resolve bullying complaints. They hold workshops for students and parents and spread their message through social media so students of other schools can also follow suit.
The global community is also very active when it comes to anti-bullying campaigns. In fact, Facebook itself has taken a step to stop cyber bullying by introducing their Bullying Prevention Hub. Working with several non-profit organisations around the world, they have developed a resource for Facebook users to report bullying or online harassment on the social media channel. To report an incident of cyber bullying, people can log on to www.facebook.com/safety/bullying.
Similar to this other social media channels such as Instagram and Twitter also allow users to report any form of harassment. On Instagram, users have raised their concerns by posting imaged using hashtags such as #bullying, #antibullying and #stopbullying.
